RIAA Claims It Succeeded In Getting Piracy Under Control Years Ago

from the um,-what? dept

This one's just bizarre. Via Eric Goldman, we learn of an opinion piece in the Tennessean newspaper, in which the RIAA argues that its strategy of suing tens of thousands of file sharers "succeeded" in "bringing piracy under control." The opinion piece is a response to an earlier story in the paper that claimed (quite reasonably, I might add) that the sue fans strategy failed, because "the suits ultimately proved ineffective in ending systematic online piracy." The RIAA, however, says the goal has never been to end piracy, but to "bring it under sufficient control" and they claim they succeeded.

The RIAA's argument makes little sense. Here's the basis for their success claims:

Our legal efforts served as an essential educational tool: Fans know far more now about copyright laws and the legal consequences of stealing music than ever before. Before initiating lawsuits in 2003, only 35 percent of people knew file-sharing on P2P was illegal; afterward, awareness grew to 70 percent.

Where there was virtually no legal digital market before the lawsuits, today the market exceeds $3 billion annually, and revenue from online platforms will comprise more than 50 percent of total industry revenues this year. To boot, there are more than 400 licensed digital services worldwide, compared with fewer than 50 in 2003

First of all, none of that has anything to do with "bringing piracy under control." For all of the supposed "education," all it really served to do was teach more people about file sharing. The amount of file sharing wasn't brought under control, it sky-rocketed, and there's good reason to suggest it was helped along by the legal strategy. There have been studies in the past about how education campaigns telling people not to do something will often increase that action. For example, signs that tell people not to remove rocks from the petrified forest in Arizona were shown to lead to greater rock taking. So I'm not sure what the RIAA thinks it accomplished here.

Furthermore, it's completely laughable that the RIAA is suggesting here that its legal strategy had anything to do with the "legal digital market." The labels were pushed kicking and screaming into iTunes and other offerings. That had absolutely nothing to do with its legal strategy.

But, let's get to the key point: if the RIAA truly believes that it successfully brought piracy under control via these lawsuits that ended a few years ago... why is it supporting things like SOPA and PROTECT IP? After all, isn't the problem solved?

This sounds familiar....

Bush stated at the time that this was the end to major combat operations in Iraq. While this statement did coincide with an end to the conventional phase of the war, Bush's assertion—and the sign itself—became controversial after guerrilla warfare in Iraq increased during the Iraqi insurgency. The vast majority of casualties, both military and civilian, have occurred since the speech.

Piracy is under control!

Listen, everyone, and RIAA puppets in the US Congress and Senate, your masters said piracy is totally under control, you can now withdraw those now-useless SOPA and Protect IP projects! Hurray! The RIAA won!

Re: Piracy is under control!

Re: Piracy is under control!

Yes, well, piracy may be under control but, certainly, you are not. Therefore, all current and future attempts at legalizing the tools necessary to control you will not only not be withdrawn but the urgency and frequency of these attempts will increase in fervor and scope until such time as you have been deemed to have been placed under control.

We will not tolerate the threat of a progressive, free-thinking and democratic global society.

Didn't I just read an article submitted by YOU, and suppported by you that showed that music piracy has actually decreased while movie piracy has increased?

If they truely want to bring piracy under control they would hire tens of thousands of people to put bogus content on the torrent networks. People would get frustrated with downloading useless crap and eventually move to legitimate sources.

Re: Re:

"Fake shit is uploaded to TPB all the time, very few fall for it."
For all intents and purpouses the tpb userbase is a community, they review quality, security concerns (viruses) and authenticity (mislablelled files) just reading the comments to an upload will almost always tell you the whole story.

Re:

While I'm sure that would be great for the unemployed foreigners in whichever country this patriotic American entertainment consortium would outsource the tens of thousands of jobs uploading bogus content, you underestimate the ability for crowdsourced content curation.

Look at The Pirate Bay and the gobs of fake content there. It's easy to tell, especially when the first five downloaders scream in the comments that the content is fake. There are other methods as well. When one account posts 120 torrents for DVD rips of movies that haven't been released in the theaters at all or for very long, they're obviously fake. Also, are you investing in multiple IP address blocks? It would be an easy pattern for site administrators to notice that a lot of fake content is coming from the same addresses. TPB also has trusted accounts from users who have been proven to upload real content, so users know which uploaders to trust.

Re: Re:

You also forget that torrents need seeds to work and no one will seed fake torrents. You download a fake and first thing you do is delete it. Therefore fakes will never get off the ground because they will have only a few seeds.

So does that mean that the RIAA is fine with losing up to 200 CD/DVD sales of music a year to pirates who download stuff for free online? (Based on their own bogus studies on how much music pirates would have bought if they didn't get it for free online)

Mike wants out-of-control piracy, upset by contrary claims.

You write here nearly every day that RIAA is being TOO successful. -- OR, alternately, NOT, depending on how you can slant a piece. -- Techdirt focus is on the /RIAA's/ problem! (Mike doesn't solve it, of course, not even a plan to, let alone a wish to, but the attention is all that's needed.)

SO, I'd say that the campaign to raise awareness has worked, and that IS getting piracy under control, because whether the levels drop soon is actually LESS of a measure than getting everyone to agree that copyright infringement is wrong. -- And you all KNOW that it is, are just gleeful little pirates wallowing in your petty thefts.

Re: Mike wants out-of-control piracy, upset by contrary claims.

Re: Re: Mike wants out-of-control piracy, upset by contrary claims.

We speculate that he is. Given his constant b*tching and moaning about wanting the rest of us to come up with a business model/plan that guarantees a return of $100 million on any/all sunk costs.

The amusing part is that business models/plans have been freely given over and over again by a plethora of people on this very site. Which he somehow seems to always overlook. Then he'll come back and demand an answer the next day.

Oh, for that $100 million it's in regard to a film. So some of us like to assume he's failed filmmaker. We speculated he might be M. Night Shamalan (or however you spell his name), but that'd be giving Blue too much credit.

I suspect Shamalamadingdong's posts would have a more mysterious Twilight Zone feel to them, and $100 million wouldn't be nearly enough money for him to make a film.

Incidentally, I just watched "Red Cliff," the most expensive Chinese movie ever made. It cost $80 million. Hollywood could not have made it for less than $800 million. Perhaps that hints at the problem?

Re: Mike wants out-of-control piracy, upset by contrary claims.

Sigh.

1. Yes piracy is wrong
2. However, the entertainment industry has never been more profitable
3. Your problem is that *you're* not profitable
3. SOPA won't solve your problem
4. Commenting on every article here isn't going to solve your problem either
5. Asking for out-of-the-box business models isn't going to solve your problem
6. Time to stop blaming "The Internet" and "those filthy pirates" for your plight.
7. Take responsibility for your life and your career and get back to work

Re: Mike wants out-of-control piracy, upset by contrary claims.

Re: Mike wants out-of-control piracy, upset by contrary claims.

I'm not sure anyone here has ever argued that the RIAA is successful at anything. If so, they're wrong.

The only reason the RIAA is worth worrying about is due to the massive collateral damage their little hissy fits cause. I don't care about any of the music published on any of the labels they represent, nor any of the people involved with them. I do, however, worry about ever-increasing copyright terms, the Internet Archive being declared a "rogue site," and the spreading of propaganda.

Re: Mike wants out-of-control piracy, upset by contrary claims.

Why don't you get back to work, you IP welfare leech? You know what I call a man who insists he should be perpetually paid a lifetime + 70 years for each piece of work he's done? Fired.

I don't go to work every day and support my family just so you IP owning leeches can sit on your ass and not contribute to society, while collecting your welfare royalty checks and crying that you don't get paid enough for doing nothing. You're the real thieves here.

Re: Mike wants out-of-control piracy, upset by contrary claims.

Re: Mike wants out-of-control piracy, upset by contrary claims.

Except you think that infringement is wildly out of control every time big media says it is, like when they buy politicians.
If the RIAA repeats this, you'll fall in line as you always do and claim it's all under control.

Yes, one could say the RIAA has increased awareness of copyright and that it's valid (for now) for three generations (a generation is measured as 20 years) where the creator and his/her children and other heirs get to sit back and wallow in all that money the publisher never paid them because the budget to promote, distribute and print the book suddenly ended up costing more than the NASA manned mission to Mars will while doing nothing to prove whether or not zero gravity sex is or isn't fun.

And it's not Mike's problem, or mine, to solve the RIAA's problems for them. That part is real simple. In a free market it's adapt or die. Kinda like evolution, right? Not a thing to do with copyright or that imaginary $100 million movie you want to make. It's not your problem either. But as you want to make it yours fill your boots.

Out of one side of their mouths the RIAA claims that file sharing is killing them, killing their industry and turning artists into paupers (as if they give a tinker's damn about artists) and out of the other side they're now claiming that it's all under control, the sun is shining, the birds are singing, the grass is growing (the grass they're smoking anyway). everyone is dancing in the pile of money they're making and the world is just a wonderful place.

Why then SOPA and IP Protect and what's the point in them if the RIAA has solved the problem?

Re:

"Our legal efforts served as an essential educational tool: Fans know far more now about copyright laws and the legal consequences of stealing music than ever before. Before initiating lawsuits in 2003, only 35 percent of people knew file-sharing on P2P was illegal; afterward, awareness grew to 70 percent."

I think he's right. Since people can't see anything wrong with file sharing, they all simply trusted their moral compass and did what we all know is right: They had something they could share without causing any pain to themselves or anyone and so they did. After all, we all reasoned that if what we are doing is ethical and reasonable, it must also be legal. Little did we know that a corrupt political process was at work here and had banned this perfectly normal activity. If it wasn't for how many lives the RIAA has destroyed through their lawsuits, we would all hear about copyright laws through those funny websites where you read that in some crappy little town in the middle of Nebraska, there is still a city ordinance on the books which prohibits wearing orange on the first Thursday of every month. We would all go double-check the existence of copyright law to make sure it's not just an absurd urban legend. Really, the RIAA has rendered us a service. They've exposed the corruption in Washington.

Today's supposed 'pirates' just copy stuff. If in 1600, a 'pirate' just copied the ships, people, and loot - it wouldn't have been an issue except for those that made big $$ off of claims of scarcity and such.. :O

They DON'T have control

Never did, and never will. To speculate otherwise is pure hubris. As far as I'm concerned, the media companies can continue in their present untenable path. Current technology has made them unnecessary. They will fail, as they should. Hopefuly, the electorate and large technology companies will prevent SOPA and it's ilk from becoming law.

Again, piracy exists because the media companies are not providing the goods in the manner the public wants. And don't give me that "Copying is Theft" crap. The original source still exists, nothing has been stolen. This is all about greed and avarice anyway. Poor media companies, they're losing their cash cows. Too bad.

Time to lower the Jolly Roger

Trading media over the Internet is not 'piracy.' Piracy is an act of robbery or violence at sea. Trading media is copyright infringement. The most basic theory of 'theft' in US law includes depriving the rightful owner of their property. If they still have their property, it can't be theft. Even though the media companies have hornswaggled Congress and the Justice department into doing their job for them, copyright, patent and trademark infringement are civil offenses, not crimes.

I routinely download movies via bit torrent to supplement my legitimate Netflix and Hulu accounts. After viewing, my most common reaction is, 'Man, am I glad I didn't pay to watch that.' Let's face it, movies are a pig in a poke. Last week, my daughter and I saw Hugo in 3D in the theater. When filmmakers start making more movies like that, I will happily spend more time attending theatrical releases.

Re: Time to lower the Jolly Roger

"The most basic theory of 'theft' in US law includes depriving the rightful owner of their property. If they still have their property, it can't be theft."

What the copyright mafia is claiming was stolen is the 'potential income'(aka imaginary money) you 'stole' from them when you downloaded the mp3. That's the whole point of the IP lobbying machine- make people believe that their IP(Imaginary Property) is worth the same as tangible goods, so a downloaded album should cost the same as a CD with the album on it.

I buy plenty of DVD's and Music - if SOPA passes, I will be too scared to... so indeed - SOPA passes, I'm boycotting - I'll cut cable and quit buying DVD's - I'll just go the the library and 'pirate' content by checking out books and movies and then I'll 'un-pirate' when I return them.

Wait, what?

Correlation does not imply causation

This is some pretty serious PR (BS) speak here. They want to paint the lawsuits that they took up against suspected file downloaders, rather than targeting 'real' pirates as a good thing when in reality it has pertinently tainted the name of the RIAA. I bet most consumers didn't even know who they were 5-10 years ago. Now they know them as the people who will try to sue the pants off you if you even install a P2P application, regardless of your intent or action. That doesnt mean they have stopped any piracy, it just means now they know who to look out for.